International payments company Spenn, (the owners of e-wallet platform Spenn Zambia) have acquired the largest POS distributor in the country Kazang. To date this marks the largest acquisition between two fintechs in the country’s history and a signal of the competitiveness of the industry. The investment is initially a $1.25 million cash injection for 15% of the company with a further 45% to be acquired through a direct share swap with Kazang’s shareholders. Recently the sector has seen an uptake in foreign investors making substantial acquisitions, following notable acquisitions in the banking sector, specifically that of Cavmont Bank last year by Access and Y-Combinators investment in Union 54.
Kazang currently owns the second largest POS agent network in the country (second to Zanaco with 15,000 agents). The company was founded in 2007, with the purpose of providing a prepaid electronic payment system to users in Zambia. Currently Kazang is one of the largest resellers of airtime in the country and has a network of more than 10,000 agents across the country. The $1.25 million cash injection is likely to be reinvested in the already dominated business. Kazang is reacting to exponential growth in its customer base with an increase of 10% per month in turnover. This investment will allow the Kazang brand to compete with the rates offered by more formal POS operators and could allow the company to become undisputed market leaders in a competitive agency banking market, with a further 20,000 POS machines scheduled to hit the market by next year.
Spenn is a payments app which focuses on providing wallet / banking services to consumers. Currently only 15% of the country has access to a formal banking account, making e-wallets a welcome necessity in our environment. Despite only starting operations in January 2020 Spenn is believed to have more than 200,000 sign ups. The app is also partnered with Access Bank Zambia (formerly part of the Cavmont Bank specifically) to provide banking licensing to the company. The companies financial dominance of fintech owned e-wallets is largely due to the strategies implemented by Jens Glaso, a well respected entrepreneur and founder of Trustbuddy, a P2P lending platform. He is the pioneer of Spenns blockchain software with Blockbonds, allowing extremely secure transactions within the Spenn ecosystem.
Spenn is listed on the Danish Stock exchange with shares selling for $0.25 per share. It is likely the brand is planning on leveraging the boom in African fintech to dominate this region. As a result of the investment Kazang shareholders will gain Spenn International shares worth more than $3.5 million (estimate) in total valuing Kazang at $8.5 million.